LIANZA Book Awards 2010

The LIANZA Book Awards were announced yesterday, with an ecclectic collection of winners, showcasing the best of the New Zealand publishing world. For more information on the awards visit the NZ Book Council news page. The winners were:

The Russell Clark Award (contribution to illustrated children’s books): There Was a Crooked Man, Gavin Bishop. The English rhyme about the man with the crooked smile, illustrated by one of New Zealand’s best known children’s writer/illustrators. This is a board book, suitable for very young people.

The Elsie Locke Award (for children’s non-fiction): Dear Alison, edited by Simon Pollard. “A reproduction of the diary of Dudley Muff, a New Zealand prisoner of war in Germany written for his niece, Alison, who was four and living in Timaru.” (library catalogue)

The Esther Glen Award (for junior fiction): The Billionaire’s Curse, Richard Newsome. Gerald is left a 13 year old billionaire after his great aunt dies. When he becomes entangled in the theft of a rather large diamond he must uncover the mystery that surrounds his great aunt’s death (was she murdered?) and her connection to the diamond.

The LIANZA Young Adult Award (awarded for the first time): Banquo’s Son, Tania Roxborogh. Fleance, Banquo’s son, gets one short reference in Macbeth (told to “fly” by the mortally wounded Banquo). In this novel, Fleance is ten years down the line, haunted by ghosts: it’s time to avenge his father’s death.

Te Kura Pounamu: Hewa, Darryn Joseph. “Hewa” is fantasy in Māori, and Hewa is a fantasy story written in te Reo Māori “about a boy who wants to help protect his family and friends from a baddie. It’s set in an online game and involves American military software, a futuristic battleship called the USS Barack Obama, and artificial intelligences gaining sentience and self determination.” (from Massey University website)

Te Tohu Pounamu (for te wahanga Kaiwhakamaori): Hautipua Rererangi, edited by Julian Arahanga and illustrated by Andrew Burdan. A Te Reo graphic novel about John Porokoru Pohe, a World War II pilot who was a prisoner at Stalag Luft III (of The Great Escape fame). While he escaped, John Pohe was recaptured and subsequently killed.

Te Tohu Taurapa (for te wahanga Pukapuka Pikitia (picture books)): Hūhū Koroheke, Kyle Mewburn, illustrated by Rachel Driscoll and translated by Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira. Old Huhu in English (from the author of the loved Kiss, Kiss, Yuck, Yuck), this book picked up the Supreme Award at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards earlier this year.